Judge speaks of “absolute indifference”
Tim V.'s highway killers have to spend years behind bars
Tim V. died on a highway near Mallorca airport. Now the perpetrators have been convicted. (archive image)
RTL
The verdict is little consolation for his family.
Nevertheless, it may also mean the end of a long period of uncertainty for them. A good two years after the sensational death of 20-year-old Tim V., the two accused Spaniards were sentenced to long prison terms.
Tim V. fell out of the car “like a sack of potatoes”.
20-year-old Tim V. died on October 8, 2022 on a highway near the island's capital Palma. Was it an accident? At first everything pointed to this – until a witness came forward and put the police on the trail of a white van. A year later, the two perpetrators were arrested. The witness testified in court that he saw a person fall onto the road “like a sack of potatoes.”
Reading tip: Two men throw Tim V. (†20) “like a sack of potatoes” onto the highway
The two perpetrators are said to have found the young man from northern Hesse on the street near the Ballermann late in the evening of the October day in question. They took him with them in their van and later simply threw him out of the vehicle on the airport highway. He was run over by a following car – and died. The majority of the nine jurors saw this scenario as proven, even though the two Spaniards had protested in court that the young man had jumped out of the car himself. According to investigators, the two Spaniards wanted to rob the drunk German. According to court documents, the vacationer had 2.41 per mille of alcohol in his blood at the time of the crime.
In the video: Young man (20) dies on the highway – was it murder?
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Court case in Spain
Young man (20) dies on the highway – was it murder?
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200,000 euros in compensation for the family
Now the two men have to be in prison: for 12.5 and 15 years. The Palma regional court announced the sentence. The lawyers of the convicted Spaniards announced an appeal. The two men had already been found guilty by a jury on Wednesday last week. The responsible judge has now decided on the sentence. The convicted must also pay the parents and sister of the 20-year-old victim compensation of almost 200,000 euros.
Reading tip: Tim V. (†20) lost sight of his best friend at the Bierkönig
The public prosecutor's office and the lawyers for the vacationer's family initially assumed it was a murder and therefore each demanded 25 years in prison for the two defendants. If the crime were classified as manslaughter, they had pleaded for a sentence of 15 years in prison.
Judge speaks of “absolute indifference”
The judge based her decision on the defendant's previous convictions and “absolute indifference”. “The victim was in the prime of his life.” “The condemned were aware of the German’s obvious level of drunkenness,” she wrote. That's why one of the men is given the maximum penalty for manslaughter. Meanwhile, the second defendant's regular drug use was seen as a mitigating factor in his sentence.
Reading tip: German killed on Mallorca – Suspect: Tim V is said to be. fell out of the van
The guilty verdict was little consolation for the victim's father. “There are only losers in this process,” he said to journalists last week as he left the court at the end of the hearing. But he thanked the investigators and the court for their work. (dpa/eon)
